Thoughts return to job at hand

International news - Search for a manager: Emmet Maloneassesses the merits of the two most likely candidates for the Ireland job.

With Wednesday night's game against Brazil out of the way, Don Givens returned yesterday to the task of finding the next Ireland manager. Though Billy Davies has apparently still to be interviewed, the three-man panel's remaining workload essentially consists of establishing whether Giovanni Trapattoni's interest is serious and, if it is, deciding whether to give the job to him ahead of Terry Venables.

What indications there have been suggest that the players' preference is for the Englishman, although the only real attempt to articulate their reasons, provided by Richard Dunne on Sunday evening, fell some way short of making a compelling case.

Having put behind him the years when he seemed hell bent on squandering his talent, Dunne has developed into one of the Premier League's best central defenders. Even he, however, would hardly argue that there isn't potential for further improvement. And so it was disappointing to note at the FAI awards his apparent lack of interest in working with Trapattoni, a centre back for more than a decade at Milan, where he won two leagues and two European Cups and was capped 17 times by Italy before going on to become one of the game's most accomplished club managers of all time, success built repeatedly on a highly effective defensive approach.

The Dubliner is entitled to his opinion and Venables, it seems certain, would bring the more enterprising brand of football, but the suggestion that because the new manager will have a limited number of opportunities to work with the players before the start of the World Cup campaign the Londoner should be appointed - as he could more easily communicate his ideas - is a still hard to take.

Steve Staunton, for one, might scratch his head at the idea that the players are desperate to spend as much time as possible with their international coach so as to maximise the team's potential.

In need of a strong showing during the latter part of the European Championship campaign, the Louthman managed to get just one established first-choice player - the ever-loyal Kevin Kilbane - on to the plane to the United States last summer.

A more productive end-of-season tour would hardly have gotten Ireland back on the road to qualification but had his team beaten Slovakia away and Cyprus at home, neither of which would have required a hugely improved performance, then the reality is that Staunton might have kept his job.

Dunne, like Damien Duff, Shay Given and just about every other player who has ever had a conversation about Venables with somebody who has played under him, says he has received positive reports about his coaching skills and man-management style.

Players, for the most part, like him while the media tend to be divided, his supporters consistently overstating his achievements down the years and his critics tending to dwell on his personality.

The reality is that if Venables is appointed by the FAI over the coming week it would be far from a calamity; but it would be a considerable disappointment now that Trapattoni appears to be a serious alternative.

Language barrier and management style aside, the critical difference between the pair is evident from a cursory glance at their CVs.

While the Italian has been successful in almost every club job he has held, winning nine league titles in four countries as well as a handful of major European trophies, his rival's reputation is based primarily upon a Spanish championship won 23 years ago with Barcelona, a solitary FA Cup victory while at Spurs, his larger-than-life persona and that rapport he enjoys with players.

His initial achievement at the Nou Camp should not be underestimated. Barcelona had not won the league in a decade when he arrived, and while he inherited a good side he changed personnel as well as tactics for the title-winning season.

Things then went steadily downhill thereafter, however, and having been totally outwitted by the Steaua Bucharest coach Emerich Jenei in the following year's European Cup, which the Romanians won on penalties, he struggled to achieve further success in Spain.

Eventually, he was sacked after his side lost home and away to Dundee United in the Uefa Cup almost a year later, few locals bemoaning his departure.

His tenure as England boss consisted mainly of home friendlies during the build-up to Euro 96. At the tournament, it is repeatedly pointed out by his backers, England were unlucky to lose their semi-final to Germany but then they tend to overlook the fact his side were desperately fortunate to get past Spain in the previous round.

Still, the team did play an admirable brand of football and the destruction of the Netherlands in the group stages was one of England's finer moments of recent times.

Since then there has been the fall-out from his disastrous business activities culminating in a seven-year ban from holding a company directorship after he admitted to a string of very serious charges brought by the British Department of Trade and Industry. There has also been one fairly successful spell at Middlesbrough and seriously ill-fated stints at Portsmouth, Crystal Palace and Leeds United.

There was also a brief return to international football with Australia, who looked set to qualify for the World Cup in 1998 before they surrendered a 2-0 lead at home to Iran in a manner that would be all too familiar to those who followed the Irish team's misfortunes over the past couple of years.

Appointing Trapattoni, on the other hand, carries with it none of those complications even if it would scarcely be a surefire thing. A glance at his famous Bayern Munich press conference on YouTube reminds one just how volatile he can be, and his four-year spell in charge of Italy was far from a triumph.

As with Venables, his best years might well be behind him too, but unlike the Englishman he has continued to stack up the trophies, winning the Portuguese title with Benfica and the Austrian one with his current club, Salzburg, in the last three seasons.

Despite his occasional tirades and the frustration of squad members who believe his teams are too defensive, he has generally been hugely popular with his players.

Clearly there are difficulties to be overcome if he is to succeed Staunton, but having waited this long to appoint someone and now found themselves in a position where getting somebody of his calibre is even a possibility, the FAI and their recruitment panel have been right to give the 68-year-old every chance to confirm his availability.

Even if he were obliged to see out the season at Salzburg he would, as things stand, be available for Ireland's next game, against Serbia in May, when he could quite easily ask the players to come in for longer than the standard few days.

Either way, the next manager looks set to be significantly better than the last one and his time at the helm promises to be interesting.

Perhaps, the most frustrating thing, though, with no suggestion that either man will be asked to groom his successor, is that we might well be put through the agony of yet another extended selection process once the team's World Cup campaign is out of the way in just a couple of years' time.